In the chap­ter titled “For­bear­ance,” dat­ed Jan­u­ary 9–12, Major Ander­son and his men at Fort Sumter wit­ness the depar­ture of the ship, the *Star of the West*, after it is fired upon by Fort Moul­trie. Despite the provo­ca­tion, Ander­son orders his gun­ners not to retal­i­ate, which frus­trates Cap­tain Dou­ble­day, who believes fir­ing back was their duty to defend the Amer­i­can flag. Dou­ble­day recalls that such inac­tion may have endan­gered their posi­tion and was shock­ing to South­ern forces.

Ander­son con­venes his offi­cers to dis­cuss whether to use Fort Sumter’s artillery to block the har­bor. While some, includ­ing Dou­ble­day, advo­cate for imme­di­ate bom­bard­ment, Lieu­tenant Meade cau­tions against esca­lat­ing the con­flict, empha­siz­ing the need for defen­sive con­duct to avoid civ­il war. Ulti­mate­ly, Ander­son decides against fir­ing and instead sends a protest let­ter to Gov­er­nor Pick­ens, wish­ing to under­stand the moti­va­tions behind the attack on the *Star of the West*.

Quar­ter­mas­ter Hall deliv­ers the protest in Charleston, where his recep­tion is icy due to rumors of impend­ing vio­lence. Anderson’s let­ter asserts that fir­ing upon an unarmed ves­sel was unjus­ti­fied and seeks clar­i­ty on whether this was autho­rized by the gov­er­nor. Pick­ens responds defen­sive­ly, jus­ti­fy­ing the act on the basis of South Car­oli­na’s changed polit­i­cal rela­tion­ship with the Unit­ed States, which Ander­son still choos­es to ignore in favor of main­tain­ing his defen­sive pos­ture.

Fol­low­ing fur­ther exchanges, Ander­son decides to send Lieu­tenant Tal­bot north for con­sul­ta­tion with the War Depart­ment, as ten­sions mount. A sec­ond com­mu­ni­ca­tion arrives from Pick­ens demand­ing the fort’s sur­ren­der, which Ander­son refus­es, advo­cat­ing instead for diplo­mat­ic res­o­lu­tion.

In prepa­ra­tion for anoth­er round of dis­cus­sions with the gov­er­nor, he pro­pos­es send­ing his aide, Lieu­tenant Hall, along with South Car­oli­na’s attor­ney gen­er­al, Isaac W. Hayne, to speak direct­ly to Pres­i­dent Buchanan. This deci­sion leads to more unease among the offi­cers at Sumter, par­tic­u­lar­ly for Cap­tain Dou­ble­day, who fore­sees dire con­se­quences of delay, as South Car­oli­na strength­ens its mil­i­tary capa­bil­i­ties while the fort remains under­pre­pared. The chap­ter cap­tures a moment filled with ten­sion, deci­sions cloaked in restraint, and an impend­ing sense of con­flict loom­ing over Fort Sumter.